″POLARIZATION PHENOMENA IN ION-DOPED POLYMERS″ .

This paper is concerned with the persistent electrical polarization in polymers which is exhibited by many organic polymers in the solid state. In the reported experiments, polyacrylonitrile (PAN) was chosen, because it is capable of storing a substantial amount of electrical polarization when subjected to a temperature-field treatment. In this study thermally stimulated discharge (TSD), commonly used to analyze polarization in polymeric materials, has been combined with infrared attenuated total reflection spectroscopy (ATR). Experimental data are presented which strongly suggest an ionic origin for high temperature discharge currents in this material. At the same time, ATR results suggest that a two-stage decay of trapped space charges in polarized films is possibly the results of mobility differences between oppositely charged carriers. Mobility differences and concentration gradients are therefore possible origins for space charge currents in unpolarized films of PAN.